Phenylacetic acid (PAA) is a protein decomposition product found throughout the phylogenetic spectrum, ranging from bacteria to man. Highly conserved in evolution, PAA may play a fundamental role in growth control and differentiation. In plants, PAA serves as a growth hormone (auxin) promoting cell proliferation and enlargement at low doses (10.sup.-5 -10.sup.-7 M), while inhibiting growth at higher concentrations. The effect on animal and human cells is less well characterized. In humans, PAA is known to conjugate glutamine with subsequent renal excretion of phenylacetylglutamine (PAG). The latter, leading to waste nitrogen excretion, has been the basis for using PAA or preferably its salt sodium phenylacetate (NaPA, also referenced herein as that active anionic meoity, phenylacetate or "PA") in the treatment of hyperammonemia associated with inborn errors of ureagenesis. Clinical experience indicates that acute or long-term treatment with high NaPA doses is well tolerated, essentially free of adverse effects, and effective in removing excess glutamine. [Brusilow, S. W., Horwich, A. L. Urea cycle enzymes. Metabolic Basis of Inherited Diseases, Vol. 6:629-633 (1989)]. These characteristics should be of value in treatments of cancer and prevention of cancer, treatments which inhibit virus replication and treatments of severe beta-chain hemoglobinopathies.
Glutamine is the major nitrogen source for nucleic acid and protein synthesis, and a substrate for energy in rapidly dividing normal and tumor cells. Compared with normal tissues, most tumors, due to decreased synthesis of glutamine along with accelerated utilization and catabolism, operate at limiting levels of glutamine availability, and consequently are sensitive to further glutamine depletion. Considering the imbalance in glutamine metabolism in tumor cells and the ability of PAA to remove glutamine, PAA has been proposed as a potential antitumor agent; however, no data has previously been provided to substantiate this proposal. [Neish, W. J. P. "Phenylacetic Acid as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for the Treatment of Human Cancer", Experentia, Vol. 27, pp. 860-861 ( 1971)].
Despite these efforts to fight cancer, many malignant diseases that are of interest in this application continue to present major challenges to clinical oncology. Prostate cancer, for example, is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in men. Current treatment protocols rely primarily on hormonal manipulations. However, in spite of initial high response rates, patients often develop hormone-refractory tumors, leading to rapid disease progression with poor prognosis. Overall, the results of cytotoxic chemotherapy have been disappointing, indicating a long felt need for new approaches to treatment of advanced prostatic cancer. Other diseases resulting from abnormal cell replication, for example metastatic melanomas, brain tumors of glial origin (e.g., astrocytomas), and lung adenocarcinoma, are also highly aggressive malignancies with poor prognosis. The incidence of melanoma and lung adenocarcinoma has been increasing significantly in recent years. Surgical treatments of brain tumors often fail to remove all tumor tissues, resulting in recurrences. Systemic chemotherapy is hindered by blood barriers. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new approaches to the treatment of human malignancies including advanced prostatic cancer, melanoma, brain tumors.
The development of the methods and pharmaceuticals of the present invention was guided by the hypothesis that metabolic traits that distinguish tumors from normal cells could potentially serve as targets for therapeutic intervention. For instance, tumor cells show unique requirements for specific amino acids such as glutamine. Thus, glutamine may be a desired choice because of its major contribution to energy metabolism and to synthesis of purines, pyrimidines, and proteins. Along this line, promising antineoplastic activities have been demonstrated with glutamine-depleting enzymes such as glutaminase, and various glutamine antimetabolites. Unfortunately, the clinical usefulness of these drugs has been limited by unacceptable toxicities. Consequently, the present invention focuses on PAA, a plasma component known to conjugate glutamine in vivo, and the pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives of PAA.
In addition to its ability to bind gluatamine to form glutamine phenylacetate, PAA can induce tumor cells to undergo differentiation. (See examples 1-5, 7-9, 11-13, and 16 herein). Differentiation therapy is a known, desirable approach for cancer intervention. The underlying hypothesis is that neoplastic transformation results from defects in cellular differentiation. Inducing tumor cells to differentiate would prevent tumor progression and bring about reversal of malignancy. Several differentiation agents are known, but their clinical applications have been hindered by unacceptable toxicities and/or deleterious side effects.
Accordingly, the present invention provides methods and compositions for treating various pathologies with PAA and its pharmaceutically acceptable salts, derivatives, and analogs.